Geography facts for kids
Geography is the study of the Earth and its features, its inhabitants, and its phenomena. The word geography comes from the Greek words gê ("Earth") and graphein ("to write, draw"). It means "to write and draw about the Earth". The word was first used by a scientist called Eratosthenes (276-194 B.C.).
Its features are things like continents, seas, rivers and mountains. Its inhabitants are all the people and animals that live on it. Its phenomena are the things that happen like tides, winds, and earthquakes.
A person who is an expert in geography is a geographer. A geographer tries to understand the world and the things that are in it, how they started and how they have changed.
Geography is divided into two main parts called physical geography and human geography. Physical geography studies the natural environment and human geography studies the human environment. The human environmental studies would include things such as the population in a country, how a country's economy is doing, and more. There is also environmental geography.
Geographers need to know a lot about maps because maps are very important for understanding geography. Geographers use maps a lot, and often make them. Making maps is called cartography, and similarly, people who make maps are cartographers.
Natural environment
Geographers studying the natural environment or physical geography may look at:
- Climate
- Landform
- Continents
- Oceans
- Soil
- Rocks
- Rivers
- Mountains
- Endogenetic process
- Exogenetic process
Human environment
Geographers studying the Human environment may look at:
Related pages
Images for kids
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James Cook's 1770 chart of New Zealand
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The Ptolemy world map, reconstituted from Ptolemy's Geographia, written c. 150
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Self portrait of Alexander von Humboldt, one of the early pioneers of geography as an academic subject in modern sense
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Pop. geog. or Demography
See also
In Spanish: Geografía para niños